Top 15 Super Bowl Sunday Performances In NBA History
By Phil Watson
The Super Bowl has been an American institution since January 1967 and the NBA has evolved its schedule to reflect that. Here are the 15 best performances in the NBA on Super Bowl Sunday.
The first Super Bowl wasn’t even called the “Super Bowl.” On Jan 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the NFL champion Green Bay Packers defeated the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in what was billed the “First World Championship Game AFL vs. NFL.”
The NBA had four games on its schedule that day, a heavy slate for a 10-team league.
As the big football game at the end mushroomed into a sort of unofficial holiday, the NBA has taken different approaches to scheduling on Super Sunday.
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When commissioner David Stern took office in the mid-1980s, the NBA began scheduling one or two marquee matchups during the afternoon in advance of the football feast that would start in the evening, leaving the night-time schedule clear.
This year, there are four games on the NBA schedule, all set for afternoon tips in order to have at least some audience because at 6:30 p.m. EST or so, it will be the NFL’s biggest night.
With so many star-studded matchups on the schedule for Super Bowl Sunday over the last 30 years in particular, it’s no surprise there have been some amazing individual performances turned in on the hardwood before visions of gridirons danced on the screens in nearly every living room.
Here are the 15 greatest NBA performances from football’s biggest night—Super Bowl Sunday.
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